Principal Melinda Smith walks children to the door after they got off the bus on the first day of school at Victor H. Hexter Elementary School in Dallas, Texas, Tuesday, August 11, 2026.
Anja Schlein/The Dallas Morning News
As a North Texas lawmaker calls for the state to push the beginning of the school year back a few weeks, experts say it isn’t clear that such a move would help districts save much on their energy costs.
State Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, posted on social media last week that requiring districts to air condition their buildings during the hottest weeks of the year is “one of the dumbest things we do as a state.”
Patterson told The Dallas Morning News he plans to file a bill during next year’s legislative session moving the beginning of the school year to after Labor Day, and pushing the end of the school year back to late May or early June.
Article continues below this ad
Patterson proposed a similar measure during last year’s legislative session. That proposal got little traction, but Patterson said he suspects that was due to the number of high-profile bills in the House Education Committee, not because of any opposition.
Texas school districts generally start their years in early to mid-August. Most North Texas districts brought students back to school last week. Community ISD and Anna ISD, both in Collin County, returned during the first week of August.
Related: A day in the North Texas heat, told hour by hour
School districts spend millions of dollars each year on electricity, including the power they use to keep schools cool in the summer. Dallas ISD spent about $25.2 million on electricity during the last school year. Frisco ISD’s budget for the current school year includes $11 million for electricity.
Ed Hirs, an energy economist at the University of Houston, said he has his doubts about the idea. Hirs said he doesn’t necessarily oppose a change in school calendars, but said there hasn’t been adequate research to support the idea that it would lead to big energy cost savings.
Article continues below this ad
School districts are required to provide at least 75,600 minutes of instruction per year. If school districts started the year later, they’d have to make that time up somewhere else. Any option they chose would bring energy costs, Hirs said — if they shortened their winter breaks, they’d pay more to heat their buildings. If they extend the school year into June, they’d still have to pay to keep schools habitable at the beginning of the summer instead of the end, he said. He also noted that most districts don’t completely shut off their air conditioning systems during summer break so they don’t end up with “mold and all sorts of nasties.”
Paul Chinowsky, a professor emeritus of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said it’s important to consider not only the extreme high temperatures many parts of the country see from one day to the next during the summer, but also what weather patterns look like longer-term.
Related: North Texas schools’ A-F scores are out. See how your district did
Chinowsky, who contributed to a 2021 report analyzing how higher temperatures lead to higher energy usage by public schools, said overnight temperatures matter as much as daytime highs. When temperatures drop into the upper 70s overnight, air conditioning systems spend less time working, he said. Likewise, a long stretch of days above 90 degrees can add more to districts’ energy costs than a few days above 100 followed by milder temperatures, he said.
In that sense, dropping school days in August, when temperatures are high throughout the day and night, and adding them in June, when daytime temperatures can be high but overnight temperatures tend to be milder, could save districts some amount of money, Chinowsky said.
Article continues below this ad
Adjusting the school calendar isn’t the only option districts have, Chinowsky said. Another effective solution is to think about the way school buildings are built, he said. Districts could make a number of changes to reduce the amount of heat that gets into classrooms, he said. Black school roofs absorb heat, so district leaders could paint them white to reflect sunlight. Asphalt-covered playgrounds absorb heat during the day and radiate it back into buildings at night, so district leaders could replace them with some other surface, like bark chips or gravel. Classroom windows bring in heat in the form of sunlight, so school leaders could install tinted windows or blinds.
Patterson, the lawmaker, said he’s convinced the change to a later start would make life easier for students, teachers and school leaders alike. Under the current calendar, football players, marching band members and cheerleaders have to practice during the hottest part of the summer, he said, and elementary students can’t have outdoor recess for the first part of the year because playground equipment is too hot to use.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “We can push everything back by several weeks and seemingly make everyone’s lives a little bit easier.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
Article continues below this ad
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.